As West Tennessee prepares to welcome Ford Motor Company’s new electric truck and battery plant in Staton, there’s a small town about 10 miles away that may soon lose its financial independence.
Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower is preparing to take over the finances of Mason, a majority-Black town with fewer than 1,500 residents. In a letter to property owners there, Mumpower wrote that the town should relinquish its charter because of “a pattern of fiscal irresponsibility and even instances of fraud” that reaches back 20 years.
For Mason Vice Mayor Virginia Rivers, the comptroller’s decision “is akin to a hostile takeover,” she told Tennessee Lookout reporter Anita Wadhwani. Wadhwani has been closely following the Mason takeover and how it is being complicated by politics, race and the soon-to-be built Ford Co. plant.
She and Rivers joined This Is Nashville host Khalil Ekulona on Friday to discuss what’s going on in Mason and what it means for the town’s future.
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